An Overview Guntur Division
A frontal View of Guntur Station (East end)
Guntur Division is one of the six divisions of the South Central Railway (SCR) a zone in the Indian Railways. The headquarters of the division is located at Rail Vikas Bhavan, Pattabhipuram,Guntur- a place from where the old metre gauge alignment used to pass. Guntur Railway Station (Co-ordinates: 16°18′04.11" N; 80°26',36.37"E; Elevation 123ft above MSL).The word Guntur comes from the original telegu word “gunta’ or ‘gartha’ which means a pond or tank, which were a plenty earlier at this place, hence it was also known as ‘Garthapuri”. In eighteenth century when the French started settling here, the nearby hills at Nallapadu and else where there used to be large number of natural streams which are no longer seen due to extensive quarrying and use of dynamite.
Railway Map of Guntur Division(in Pink line)
This is one of the recently formed divisions of Indian Railways. The Railway Board although announced of its creation way back in 1997 to serve the impoverished interior Coastal Andhra region, the eastern part of the backward Rayalaseema region and the south eastern extremeties of the Telangana region by postind an Officer-on-Special Duty(OSD) it became functional on 1st.April, 2003. It is comprised of mainly single line non-electrified track, the only exception being the Tenali-Guntur-Nallapadu stretch (single line electrified) and the Guntur-Krishna Canal stretch which has recently been converted into double line and electrified. It is a mainly passenger driven division although freight traffic which was only Rs 930 million per annum in 2003, has picked up to more than Rs. 2000 million now. A major part of the freight traffic comprises of cement, food grains, chilly, cotton and timber. The Guntur-Nandyal stretch passes through Naxalite infested Nallamallai forest region and is therefore many of its stations are frequently targeted by them. However it is one of the most beautiful sections of the Indian Railways passing through the heart of pre-historic Gondwanaland hills and forests, which is geologically much older than the Himalayas and the North Indian plains. It has two tunnels near Chelama station, one Bogada tunnel having a length of about 1.6 km, and Chelama tunnel about 700 metres. The former is one of the longest tunnels in Broad Gauge railway system in India. The Bogada tunnel is about 230 km away from Guntur city.
Since its inception the division has improved its earnings every year, especially with its Freight/Goods services. During the fiscal year 2006-07 the earning from Goods traffic alone was around Rs. 198.00 crore and total earning was around Rs.258 crore
The newly built divisional headquarters office at Pattabhipuram in Guntur is a landmark structure in the city, having a semi circular design and mostly covered by tinted glass. It has a beautiful lawn, a fountain and a vast garden complex. The current Divisional Railway Manager is M. Akhtar, an officer of the IRPS cadre.
Railway Reservation Counter, Guntur
The division has 68 major and minor stations spread over a total route length of 627 kilometres. The route breakup is as follows
The Guntur Macherla and the Guntur Nandyal stretches were originally built to
Metre Gauge partly by the Madras and
Southern Mahratta Railway (MSMR) and partly by British government owned
earstwhile East Coast Railway in the late 19th century. Since there was no rail
communication to Madras (Chennai) under which state, Guntur was a district both
the Railways were extended and merged at Guntur Junction in 1895. As per the
Imperial Gazette of India, 1901, the district officials of Guntur, prior to
coming of the railway, were going 60 miles by road to nearest sea port and
thence by steamer boat to Madras. It was converted to the present
Broad Gauge during the early 90s under
Project Unigauge. This stretch in late
19th. century became a part of the important East-West coast trade link that
connected
Vasco da Gama, Goa to
Masulipatnam in Andhra Pradesh through
Hyderabad state. Thus Guntur became an important centre of trade and business.
Some of the old MSMR engraved wooden benches can still be seen with wrought iron
frames at
Macherla,
Repalle and
Vajendla Stations. The Vajendla-Tsunduru a
10 kms. Section of MSMR connecting Chennai mainline was abandoned long back
which was a by-pass for Tenali and reducing distance to Chennai from Guntur by
16 kms.
Ethipothala Waterfalls, Macherla.
The major towns served by the division on the Pagidipalli-Repalle route are Nalgonda, Miryalaguda, Nadikudi, Sattenapalle, Piduguralla, Tenali, Repalle. On the Nandyal stretch, the major towns are Donakonda, Cumbum, Narasaraopet and Nandyal. The division also serves the famous handloom town of Mangalagiri on the Vijayawada route. The famous 1st.- 2nd.century BC Buddhist structure of Nagarjuna Konda island on the River Krishna, Nagarjuna Sagar dam and Ethipothala waterfalls can be reached from Macherla railway station. It may be mentioned that the original ruins of Buddhist Vihara and University at Nagarjunakonda on the banks of River Krishna were submerged when the dam and hydro electric power station was built in late 1950's and early 60's. The present island of Nagarjuna Konda is a re-furbished and re-located archeological site within the dam reservoir.
Mangalagiri Station, Guntur, AP.
Amaravati-Similarly the ruins of Buddhist stupas and Vihara and the Hindu temple of Shiva at Amaravati(Coordinates: 16°35′N 80°22′E16.58, 80.36) on the banks of river Krishna are about 30 km from Guntur.It was also the capital of Satavahanas, the first noted Andhra kings who ruled from the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD, after the downfall of Mauryan empire. Uppalapadu Bird Sanctuary is situated only 5 km away from Guntur. While Pidiguralla and Vishnupuram belt is famous for lime stone and cement industry, Donakonda hills are famous for natural slate stone. Guntur is the only Indian city which has a tower named after Jinnah, the founder of State of Pakistan. This tower was built when he was an active member of Indian National Congress and a prominent critic of the British colonial administration.
Cumbum-Cumbum lake in present Prakasham district of AP, built on Gundalakamma rivulet upon Nallamalai hills is one of the oldest man made lakes of Asia. The lake is around 7 km in length and about 3 km average in breadth. It is said that the lake was built by sage Jamadagni adjoining opening between two hills of Nallamalai range. But history records that the anicut was built by the Gajapati kings of Orissa in 15th. Century AD when the area was under their control. It was subsequently renovated by the Vijayanagar princess Varadharajamma. As per the Imperial gazette of India at the turn of 20th century the height of the dam was 57 feet and the drainage area was 430 sq miles. The direct irrigation land was about 10,300 acres in all. It is one of the most pisturesque valley in Guntur-Nandyal section . [2]
Miscellaneous
As part of its greenery effort, the division maintains a 20 acre park called Kartik Vanam which has more than 50 varieties of trees, both native and exotic. It also has a duck park in it, built by P.N Shukla, the first DRM of the division.
@Akhtar, 25th Jan 2008
References:
1.AndhraPradesh Tourism Development Corporation webpage
2.Imperial Gazetteer of India,1901,Chicago Univ. net. Library,USA,
3.South Central Railway web page
4.Guntur division/en.wikipedia,2007
5.Sattellite image from Google earth
Guntur City map .The yellow line is NH- 5
The now abandoned Vajendla-Tsunduru line in HWH-MAS route